Chapter 217: Chapter 221 Reunion
The familiar house stood quietly at the end of the serene street, its first-floor windows emanating bright, warm light.
The sky had completely darkened, and the streetlights on either side of the road made the surroundings even more tranquil. Heidi slowed down as she neared the last hundred meters to her house, using slow, deep breaths to gradually adjust her emotions.
She had helped Fenna calm down, but she knew that her own feelings were not as relaxed and detached as she appeared.
The scene of saying goodbye to her father seemed to have occurred just a moment ago when she had no idea what would happen in the City-State—and it was evident that her father had sensed something at that time.
It was a belated separation of life and death.
Her father told her to seek refuge in the cathedral while he went to that antique shop in the Lower City District… But why did he go to that antique shop?
A thread of doubt suddenly surfaced in Heidi’s heart. However, she quickly set the doubt aside for the moment—the lights in the hall were on, waiting for her.
The deep-gray car smoothly entered the courtyard. Heidi pushed open the front door, took a few steps inside, and stopped in surprise.
It was not her father, who theoretically should have been home by now, waiting for her in the house. It was her mother—wrapped in a woolen shawl with dark blue stripes, sitting in the high-backed chair by the dining table, wearing delicate glasses, intently reading the newspaper. There was a tall stack of old newspapers beside her, seemingly moved out from her father’s study.
Heidi stood frozen at the entrance to the dining room, not coming to her senses for a moment.
She couldn’t remember how long it had been since her mother had walked out of that bedroom—it seemed that for all these years, the image of her mother was always confined to that dimly lit bedroom, and the seat by the dining table was perpetually empty. Her father said it was meant for her mother, but it had never been filled.
Heidi always found this odd, but after so many years, she had gotten used to her mother not leaving the room, until now… Seeing her mother sitting in that chair, she felt an almost otherworldly sense of unreality.
Heidi subconsciously took a couple of steps forward, and the sound of her footfalls finally drew the attention of the elderly woman at the table who lifted her head and immediately smiled upon seeing her daughter, “Ah, Heidi, you’re back.”
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“I…” Heidi opened her mouth, finding herself at a loss for words with her mother. Although she visited her parents’ bedroom daily to greet them, the feeling now was as though she and her mother hadn’t seen each other for over a decade, “I got held up at the cathedral for a while. How… How are you?”
“I’m well, just sitting here,” her mother replied cheerfully, with a glimmer in her eyes that Heidi couldn’t quite understand. She rose from the chair and slowly approached her daughter, staring at Heidi’s face in a trance, then reached out to touch her hair, “Let me take a good look at you… It’s been so long since I’ve really seen you…”
“We see each other every day though,” Heidi replied instinctively, then looked at the elderly woman with concern, “Why have you come out of the bedroom? Are you feeling better today?”
Her mother smiled as if speaking to herself or to her daughter, “I’m better now, all better… By the way, how come Morris isn’t back yet?”
“Father isn’t home yet?” Heidi was startled and growing quietly anxious, “He should have arrived home before me. His location was closer than the cathedral, and he didn’t get held up like me…”
“Maybe his car broke down on the way,” her mother suggested slowly, “His driving has never been commendable. Come, let’s wait for him together.”
Heidi hesitated, then nodded, following her mother back to the side of the dining table. Then she noticed the lavish meal—the dishes were not the usual ones prepared by the temporary maid they hired.
“Did you make this?” Heidi looked up in surprise, “It’s been a long time since you’ve cooked.”
“Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve cooked. I couldn’t even find where the ingredients were kept. I had to ask that maid to help me find them, and I don’t know how it tastes,” her mother said with a faint smile, “Fortunately, I still remembered the general process.”
Listening, Heidi gazed at the food on the table and was about to taste a forkful when she heard her mother’s voice come from beside her, “Let’s wait for your father to come home before we start eating.”
Heidi’s motion halted.
She hadn’t heard that phrase for many years.
Just then, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from near the entrance. It sounded like some large bird flapping its wings mixed with light crackling noises. Heidi was about to inquire about the sound when she heard the jingling of keys and the turning of a doorknob. She saw the front door opening not far away.
Father had returned.
Morris stood dazedly in the doorway, still dizzy from having been Transitioned directly from the Homeloss by Ai Yi. The swirling confusion of his senses left him befuddled to the point that for a long stretch of ten seconds or more, he believed he was hallucinating.
He saw his wife sitting at the dining table, waiting for him to come home for dinner.
Then, he realized it was not an illusion.
The “miracle” he had prayed for from Subspace eleven years ago had finally been solidified on this side of the veil after the intertwining of flames and history—it was a realization of a wish he had not dared to dream of.
Standing like a sculpture for what felt like an eternity, Morris finally began to move forward, with his pace quickening with each step.
On the Homeloss, sharing the flesh of the children of the Deep Sea Church with his kinfolk, listening to the knowledge of the Subspace’s shadows, becoming a member of the secret society… These burdens that had weighed heavily on his heart felt as if they had suddenly lifted. And it seemed now he glimpsed the most reasonable interpretation—
Every miracle’s realization required a price to be paid, and now, that cost had settled upon him in the gentlest, most affectionate way possible.
It was time to accept it willingly.
His wife stood up from the dining table, and Morris embraced her tightly.
“I finally see you…” the old scholar’s voice was low, as if afraid that Heidi, who was nearby, might hear, and equally afraid that his wife in front of him might not, “I…”
“Alright, the child is watching—there’s plenty of time for you to explain to me what exactly happened, no need to rush now.”
“Oh…oh, you’re right, you’re right.”
Morris responded somewhat frantically, releasing his wife and turning his head, only to see Heidi looking over with a surprised expression.
“Ahem…I’m late coming back, on the way… the car broke down, need to find someone to tow it back tomorrow,” Morris explained awkwardly for a moment before quickly changing the subject, “Are you okay? Is everything alright at the cathedral…”
“Besides being quite startled and utterly confused, I am, like everyone else, without a scratch,” Heidi answered, taking another good look at her father, “But you… Why do I feel like something’s off about you? Did something happen on your way back?”
“What could possibly happen to me?” Morris immediately said, as if dreading that Heidi might steer the conversation toward his recent whereabouts. And then, he noticed the sumptuous dishes on the dining table.
A complex expression appeared on the old scholar’s face.
“I…had already eaten before coming back,” he hesitated, “On the ship… I dined at Mr. Duncan’s.”
Ugly and terrifying “fish” swam into his mind.
At the “Subspace Banquet,” like the bizarre Abyssal Hound, he was extremely nervous about the fish, but under Mr. Duncan’s watch, he still steeled himself and ate the flesh of the Deep Sea offspring—he couldn’t remember much about what happened afterward.
All he remembered was that it was delicious.
Now he couldn’t swallow a single bite.
However, at that moment his wife’s voice came from alongside, “I made this with my own hands.”
“Mother hasn’t cooked for many years,” Heidi also chimed in, “She felt a bit better today, so…”
“Then I’ll eat a little.” Upon hearing this, Morris did not wait for his daughter to finish speaking before he sat down beside the dining table, immediately picking up the soup bowl and gulping it down.
“How does it taste?” his wife asked expectantly.
“A bit…salty,” Morris said hesitatingly, but then he picked up the bowl again and took a few more hearty gulps, smiling as he swallowed, “Salty, too salty…your cooking is always so salty…”
“If you don’t like it, then don’t eat it!”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t good…”
“Then eat quietly—why so much talk at the table?”
Heidi lifted her head to look at her father and then at her mother.
It had been many years since she had heard such a conversation—and after all these years, it seemed as though nothing had changed.
So, she began to smile, bowed her head, and cut a piece of pan-fried steak to put in her mouth.
Indeed, it was a bit salty.
…
The uncle had already gone to sleep, soundly—he seemed to have not had a good sleep in a very long time, to the point of dozing off halfway through their conversation.
Fenna slowly walked towards her bedroom.
She had already changed into home clothes and simply tied her hair into a ponytail. After discarding her scar-ridden armor and laying down her greatsword, the battle-weary Judge seemed to shed her ferocious aura, becoming a young girl who, like anyone else, had her own life full of joys and sorrows.
At home, she did not hide her feelings and worries, so the uncle clearly noticed that she was heavily preoccupied. Yet, during their recent conversation, he had not asked any questions.
The two also tacitly avoided discussing the matter of the “Subspace Blessing.”
It was clear that her uncle did not want to add to her burdens.
But Fenna herself knew that the burden in her heart was not just about the so-called “Subspace Blessing”; it wasn’t even related to her own life or death.
She returned to her bedroom, closed the door, approached the vanity, and took out the ceremonial dagger with intricate decorations from the drawer.
It was a Sacred Relic of the Deep Sea Church and a gift personally blessed and presented to her by Bishop Valentin after her baptism.
This Sacred Relic symbolized the beginning of her faith in the Storm Goddess Gomona.